


The Red-Haired Bride Chronicles

by The_Exile



Series: Ryuka [1]
Category: Phantasy Star (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Community: smallfandombang, F/M, Minor Spoilers, Robot/Human Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 15:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14240589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: An AU where Prince Ayn ignores both marriage options and attempts to marry Mieu. Falling in love with a cyborg has its problems - her much longer lifespan compared to yours, for instance, and her inability to produce an heir for your royal line. With Wren's help, they go on a journey to find the ancient Guild who can help them with their dilemma using their access to millennia-old legal records and the secrets of their strange world's origin. However, the Guild itself is not necessarily benevolent, opening up the precedent case is attracting the attention of certain less human-friendly cyborgs and there is a strong possibility that the only way Ayn can make this work is to become a cyborg himself.artwork by danceswithgary can be found at : https : // archiveofourown . org / works /14237421





	1. Chapter 1

They met at the old Temple to Laya to discuss the matter. It was practically the only place in the Kingdom they could truly be in private. Nobody else came there. It was considered bad luck, a place of ill omen, governed by malign deities whose spectral voices haunted the deserted ruins. No matter how many times they had attempted to demolish the terraced pyramidal shrine, nothing even left a mark, not even the explosions laid by the royal androids. Anyone who approached the strange, ancient glyph covered altar in the middle of the massive structure, where the steps tapered off and then descended into its depths again, were greeted by that same booming voice, feminine but powerful and forbidding. The voice commanded them to begone, that they had no purpose in the sacred place that opened only to Laya's children. Even captured Layan nobility forced down the steps had caused the same result - one captive had even confessed that the Temples existed in their own lands as well - they were scattered far and wide, usually at the crossroads of nations - and none of them had ever opened up for even those of royal blood who were closest in lineage to Laya. The only thing they could glean from the chamber was a bright glowing blue arcane light - the court technician had confirmed that it was indeed a powerful telemental reaction - and a strange surging, roaring sound like a tidal vortex or hurricane. Then there was the voice and an overwhelming feeling of failure, of being cast out in shame, that usually drove the explorer to run out of the Temple. 

Mieu vaguely remembered seeing someone use it. In fact, it might even have been Laya herself, or one of her children who tended to look identical to her and who were also ceremonially named Laya. Reflecting back, the cyborg realised that they had almost certainly all been clones, not just children. She remembered that the Temples were actually teleportation networks, usually into places that were dangerous or needed to be kept under high administrative access only for security reasons. She had no idea if it was even possible to open such a network for use any more but at least they served a new purpose: the only remaining safe meeting place of the future King and someone he really needed to have a private conversation with. 

Their cover story was that they were purifying the Temples, a process that involved a lot of ceremony over a long period of time, requiring a Prince and their royal cyborg to be in complete solitude. The implied possible consequences of disrupting their ritual included hordes of monsters pouring out of an imagined basement level, evil spirits being summoned into the material plane instead of being banished altogether or Ayn personally executing someone, possibly as a human sacrifice to appease Laya and re-cement an ancient treaty that had been broken, as a punishment for breaking ancient taboos. In reality, absolutely nothing existed that could remotely threaten them except maybe falling down the stairs. Monsters didn't nest in the building, unlike other buildings of its size and antiquity. Bandits, normal animals, even the foliage stayed out of the vast Temple. This in itself was an eerie effect, making it seem more like a sealed tomb than probably a fast transport system. Mieu had not seen the place's defenses but she knew it had them. One day someone would go too far in trying to destroy the place and activate the defences. It would go badly for everything on the continent whenever what actually slept here woke up. Prince Ayn had banned further attempts to demolish the sites, claiming that it was part of the ongoing attempts at reparation between the Layans and Orakians. 

Despite the average citizen being as superstitious as they ever were, honestly believing that a Layan (or Orakian, in Cille or Shushoran) was a baby-eating monster despite the fact that they couldn't accurately tell you if their perfectly ordinary human neighbour was Layan or Orakian or one of the rare but growing mixed generation. Prince Ayn himself was of both Layan and Orakian blood, the child of King Rhys and Queen Maia, and a symbol of the new era of peace that he hoped would grow between the two races who were lost to each other and had grown hostile to each other over the centuries. In Mieu's opinion, this conflict was the result of the decline in learning in general, more specifically contact between the two races and information about each other, and very particularly the breakdown of travel networks. If she and Wren were able to take a cyborg work gang from Hatazak and erect a new transport system between Landen and Cille, it would be a big step towards development for both nations, even though the initial expenses would be great. However, Ayn was not the only individual who needed persuading in the political arena, and despite theoretically being a Crown Prince whose word was law, he didn't realistically wield the most clout, mostly due to lack of experience. When you constantly needed to go out and battle monsters, people mostly left you alone and didn't bother you at work in case they also ended up having to fight monsters, but you also didn't get much political experience, so everyone generally just did what they wanted behind your back.

One of the things Ayn was always having to quash was attempts to arrange marriages for him. Mostly these attempts were completely against his wishes, generally didn't include the consent of the bride-to-be either and often involved openly malicious attempts at fraud, blackmail, financial dependence and once even trying to kidnap his mother in an effort to get him to marry their daughter in exchange for her. They had learned the hard way that Queen Maia was quite the adept technique user and that previous kidnap attempts had only been successful because they had been by her own family or by gigantic winged monsters.

Ayn was very clear on the subject: he already knew who he was going to marry and his decision was final. He refused to elaborate on this topic, saying that he was not going to involve his bride-to-be in this cruel political circus, not when she was a real person with her own tasks to be gotten on with in the constant efforts to make their world vaguely habitable again, not just some stranger looking for a quick profit.

They mostly assumed he meant Thea and was too embarrassed to admit he had fallen in love with someone who was practically his cousin. Not that most people even saw a problem with this, especially as it would fulfil both the criteria of purity in the royal bloodline and that of preserving the newly forged Layan-Orakian alliance. Anyway, Thea could take care of herself and was also not who he was talking about.

"I have found a precedent," remarked Mieu, her voice strangely emotionless considering the subject matter. Maybe it was just how cyborgs talked - she tended to be that way about everything - but she sounded more like a lawyer than an excited bride-to-be taking part in politically dangerous secret wedding plans. 

"Do continue," said Ayn, sitting back on the cold stone steps, putting his head on his arms for comfort. It had been a rough journey getting even this far away from the city. The cyborg attacks were growing more common and in greater numbers and machine classes. 

"The android Siren of Lune's army - Lune was Orakio's primary General - took a husband, one of Lune's brothers. Siren's personality chip was tested and it was confirmed that the love he claimed existed between them was genuine, strong enough and emergent rather than programmed."

"I do not doubt your love for me, any more than I do my own love for you," said Ayn. It was true. Even though she had a tendency to discuss the matter with the same passion as she showed when buying groceries, she had never demonstrated anything less than selfless loyalty to him as an equal and involved partner in all matters. They had been in so many more situations together than just that of a cookie cutter royal bride, too - they had fought side by side in battle, she had been his retainer and adviser, had been his bodyguard and tutor. As he grew up and became an independent adult, their relationship began to grow more equal and he looked at her as a man would a beautiful woman. True, she was a lot older than him but her unchanging appearance and personality as a cyborg made her seem the same age as him.

She'll be like that when I'm as old and grey as my grandfather, he thought.

"What did they do about heirs, though?" he asked.

"That was rather more difficult," she admitted, frowning, "It was ruled that a new cyborg should be programmed and a child be conceived by a donor, so that they could be raised as twins and convenient representatives of both the human and cyborg species."

"A donor, huh? And you'd be okay with this?" he tried to look into her eyes, a tactic that he knew didn't work but didn't stop attempting anyway. She didn't even blink.

"Princess Thea would be the logical choice," she said, "However, I should warn you that the project fell through. As an incentive, the donor was compensated with a position in court that put them in line as an heir to the throne should anything happen to the royal couple or the heirs."

"So, how many milliseconds passed before the convenient accidents began?"

"You are growing politically astute. Fortunately, the story has a happy ending - Siren's daughter was the sole survivor."

"And that's a happy ending. Right," Ayn made a mental note to go over certain aspects of human psychology with her again when they next had a spare moment.

"Siren's daughter was identical to her in every way and almost certainly lives on now," continued Mieu, "I could try and make contact with her and we could visit her to ask questions about the arrangement! For a start, I do not know the location of any remaining cyborg assembly plants..."

"Mieu, I'm not interested in Thea and I refuse to take a politically convenient mistress," he said, "If you want to make a Mieu the Second, that's fine by me and I'll accept her as my daughter. I just don't see the Court accepting her as an heir. Again, I couldn't care less, but those old men are rather afraid that the entire Orakio-Layan bloodline will end up outlived and replaced by identical machines."

"You are correct! I should not make an identical child. It is unimaginative I will design her to look like my sister, Miun," said Mieu, "Don't worry, I'm sure I will be able to swerve them to my point of view. After all, they wish to preserve traditions of multiple millennia. What better custodians than people who actually live that long?"

"You... have a good point. And I'd appreciate not having a daughter who is literally identical to my wife. But I really don't think you understand the depths of their awkwardness on absolutely any topic, never mind something that could potentially make huge changes to their way of life."

"There is another option. It was never implemented among royalty but was practiced fairly commonly among the guild houses of the spaceship's crew," she said, "In fact, although such circles were rather above the law and impossible to penetrate, intelligence suggests that the practice had become religious in nature."

"Ye... eeeesss?" Ayn played with the long braids of his soft, fine, shockingly bright cyan hair, considered a feature of great beauty among the Layan gentry. It was a nervous tic. He did not like where this was going.

"Ayn, have you ever considered becoming a cyborg?"

Ayn opened his mouth for a long time, holding up a finger, then shut it again. 

"I suppose both of us need to make sacrifices in this relationship," he replied.


	2. Chapter 2

Wren was in on the secret meetings too. Not only were there no cover stories either Ayn or Mieu could think up that incorporated any reason to leave the other cyborg out, they also believed that he genuinely had no interest in sabotaging their efforts. Wren had zero political status. As far as the court was concerned, he was just a slightly more powerful model of attack machine. Despite the fact that he had just as advanced intelligence and emotional programming as Mieu, he did nothing to dissuade them of the belief. He was quite happy being able to conduct more practical affairs in peace and quiet.

(Wren insisted that his personality chip was perfectly capable of processing a romantic relationship and it was an active decision, as well as maybe the equivalent of the same personality trait found in humans, that he was completely uninterested in pursuing such a relationship. In other words, he had not found anyone he even vaguely felt anything for, human or cyborg. Ayn knew from experience that Wren could lie but he didn't feel any deception coming from the android.) 

Despite his appearance - he was tall, heavily armed and armoured at all times - he was not even a combat model. He was a control model, designed to interface with vital systems that kept the ship running. It was precisely because of his importance to the overall mechanical chain of command that he was so difficult to damage but he was not as suited to actual combat efficiency as, say, a lithe, quick assassin like Mieu who could repair her own systems in battle. Wren had more important things to do than guard important people and take down Orakio's enemies and it was for this reason that he sacrificed any semblance of a normal life in exchange for complete freedom of movement. People occasionally tried to order him around like their personal combat android but he just played dumb and pretended he was only programmed to respond to Prince Ayn's voice. 

"Not that this whole affair is of no interest to me," admitted Wren as he polished his laser cannon, "The formal inclusion of an android into the royal family in a position other than a retainer will bring important changes to our legal status and fundamental rights that will trickle down to every rank in the ship's command structure."

"You'll have to be careful that people don't attack you out of fear of some kind of conspiracy to take over the world as well," Ayn warned him. Wren gave him a blank look.

"We already run the ship," he pointed out, "Well, apart from instances where malfunctioning androids have left the chain of command and usurped control over the systems, or malicious human hackers have repurposed vital systems."

"Humans don't know the difference. As far as the citizens are concerned, you're all as dangerous as each other. I really wouldn't say such things about running the ship in public if I were you."

"I apologise but I also have no in-built methods of non-lethal crowd control," chipped in Mieu.

"I have no desire to share any sensitive information about this ship's functioning with unauthorised personnel," said Wren, “Now, as I see it, you have several options that will involve taking slightly different routes. Some may prove difficult with what we have. Let me bring up a map.”

Wren retrieved their monitor from his backpack and slid it in front of him. A holographic display popped up that showed a rotating map of the ship. Biodomes of different environments were arranged in a circle around the central dome, Aridia, where the robots of Hatazak eternally maintained the ship's control systems. Wren had been found in a mountain cave in the Aridia, as had Mieu's malfunctioning sister. The land was an arid desert that did not pretend to be designed for hospitality towards any kind of life form. Emergency evacuation plans had been laid in place by Ayn's parents that involved fleeing to the mountains on the outskirts of Aridia. While it was harsh, it was not impossible to live there - the monsters were regularly culled by cyborgs who were sympathetic to Ayn's family, in so far as his father's actions had assisted them with their goal of restoring the malfunctioning systems on the ship. They could be persuaded to agree to shelter them for a while. Guessing that any plan involving cyborgs would involve stopping at Hatazak, Ayn's thoughts began to drift to the region.

"Stopping there for information would be a wise choice," agreed Wren, "But it will not be our primary goal. We have two possibilities - to get in contact with either Siren or Lune, or to try to infiltrate a Starship Guild lodge meeting. Both Siren and Lune were last sighted on facilities located on the moons. To reach the last known meeting place of the Guild could prove to be even more difficult. Their policy of strict secrecy leads to them meeting in Lashute, a Guild-run floating city in the land of Terminus."

"Wasn't that completely blocked off by Orakio himself?" Ayn frowned, "I thought it was too dangerous to go in there any more. Something about much stronger monsters. Demons, even."

"I am sceptical that such a thing as demons could actually exist," Wren informed him, "However, it is true that the monster outbreaks in the Terminus region can barely be contained even with the entire dome on lockdown. Whichever method the Guild is using to gain access must include either the highest tier of administrative authority or some sort of hacking. Assuming, of course, that the rumours are even true."

"We can't break into the most dangerous and forbidden area of the world just on a chance that a rumour might be true," said Ayn, "Isn't there anywhere else that they gather?"

"The Divisia region has been used by the starship pilots in the past. It is also a route to Aerone, one of the ports for shuttles between the ship and the satellites," Wren explained, "Whether any of this still exists after so long... There's also Techna, on the other side of the ship. That was the Guild lodge for the engineering division. There's a shuttle there as well."

"This pattern does not seem to be coincidence," Ayn pointed out, folding his arms.

"Indeed it is not. The Guild do not like the shuttles to fall out of their control. Both satellites were equipped with powerful orbital weapons that devastated entire regions during the original Orakio-Layan war when they fell into the hands of either side."

"I'm surprised you're allowed to tell me of such things."

"Strictly? I am not. However, I believe the knowledge will come in useful on your family's overall duty to watch over this ship's future. I trust you not to ever consider using such a weapon. It did not end in victory for either side last time and only resulted in huge losses on both sides. Civilians, too - the weapons do not discriminate, they simply level entire areas."

Ayn shuddered, "How do you even know you can trust the Guild with such a thing? I mean, you barely even know if they still exist, and individuals shady enough that you seriously would not put it past them to hide in Terminus..."

"Trust me, we would know about it if the Guild had malicious intent. When we moved the moons closer to the ship, I was actually investigated by one of our security teams in connection to a rebel Engineer movement."

"But that just goes to show how little you know about them. You can't tell them apart from your own people on a mission."

"Again, you will have to trust me that they exist," said Wren, "But I agree, we should not go straight to an attempt to break into Terminus on a rumour. May I suggest that Techna is the easiest of the known Guild-influenced cities to visit? We can attempt to access the shuttle at the same time."

"It's a fair way away, though. Can we find an excuse to leave the Kingdom undefended for that long?"

"There are more cyborg attacks on the horizon. I believe an excursion to such a place may be a good idea for a scouting mission to try and find clues as to the source of these attacks," said Wren, "After all, this assault does remind me rather a lot of the attacks in the first war. Not the eventual bombardment with orbital weapons but definitely the initial waves of attacks."

"Are you saying that you fear the attacks will lead up to something on that scale?"

"It is a possibility we cannot discount. I won't be bluffing when I explain our mission, merely leaving out a few details that are not required for them to know in order to do their jobs. Besides, there's no point asking me about such things anyway. A battle cyborg like me only knows about combat operations. I cannot be held responsible if any duplicity went on during my watch."

Ayn sighed, "Remind me never to trust anything around you two. Particularly you, Wren."

"You are still in training, Prince Ayn, and therefore you are our charge. It is up to us as long-lived individuals who have been by the side of the royal family for generations to educate you," said Wren.

Mieu gave Wren a harsh glare, "Wren, that is not fair on me. When I am Ayn's wife, it would be inappropriate for me not to share an equal relationship with him."

Ayn laughed, "Don't worry, you can be the dominant one pulling all the strings if you want to. I'll be the absentee Prince forever on some quest or other."

"Impossible. I will not allow you to go on a single quest unaccompanied by me. It would be far too dangerous."

"Then you should be absentee rulers together and I will manage the Kingdom's daily affairs for you," said Wren.

"Ah, now I see your true ambitions. Trust you to try and usurp my throne!" Ayn pointed an accusing finger at the poker-faced cyborg.

"It was a joke, Ayn," he sighed rather theatrically, "I have far more important duties than the governing of one single temporary human nation."

"I'll be lucky if it ends up being temporary or human with you two around," Ayn scratched the back of his head, "Or just one nation, knowing Wren. Please don't look at me like that, Mieu. I'm not reconsidering our marriage. Just your assessment of me as sane during the last psychological evaluation."

"The healing technique system is not good at analysing the fine and vague details of the human psyche," agreed Mieu, "I apologise if my diagnosis was incorrect and will accept a request for a second evaluation." 

“It’s okay, Mieu, I’m the Prince, it’s up to me to rewrite history to my own twisted whims and decide who was sane all along.”

“Precisely,” she agreed, “Now, let us return. I do not believe we will think up an excuse for why we have been missing for twice as long as usual this time.”


	3. Chapter 3

As luck would have it – although it was far removed from any definition of ‘luck’ that Ayn would normally use – his father and the guards were far too busy to be worried about him. In fact, they were relieved to see him safe, if a little battered and scraped from their encounters on the way back, and King Rhys in particular was grateful that he had been away during the latest attack on Cille. 

It had been worse. A lot worse. The evacuation plans had already almost emptied the city. 

Ayn would have to go via Hatazak after all. 

Anxious as he was to set off on a mission that might even genuinely prevent a global disaster (were they called global if your world wasn't a real planet or, for that matter, a globe?), he couldn't desert his Kingdom in such a time of need. That said, he was also reluctant to abandon his homeland. Looking back at Cille for one final time as he helped the last evacuee into the line, he was thankful that the cyborgs weren't all that intent on trashing the place. They clearly had specific goals of some kind. While this was worrying in itself - malfunctioning robots were a lot more straightforward to deal with than mechanical agents of a terrorist whose location was still completely unknown - it at least meant that the only civilian casualties and property damage so far were accidents caused by complete lack of interest in minimising collateral damage but not deliberate intent. Wren had told them that the machine army's most likely act would be to try and pursue the royal family or the two cyborgs, unless they were trying to steal a particular artifact, so the party took a slightly different route to the refugees once they had finished helping out with the evacuation. Wren had been fighting off the machines who noticed the crowd and got too close, Mieu was on medic duty, Ayn's job was to scout the streets and rescue anyone who had been trapped in their house or who was too weak to catch up with the evacuation on their own. King Rhys and Queen Maia gave speeches to try and reassure the populace and prevent panic among the crowd, a process that had so far worked. There had been losses - still an adventurer at heart, Rhys blamed himself personally for each one as though he was supposed to be able to single-handedly protect an entire nation - but nothing on the scale that it could easily have escalated to if they hadn't acted quickly. Soon, the procession wound its way as quickly as it could without straining the endurance of the civilians too badly - those who couldn't walk were helped onto carts - while Rhys led Ayn and the others on a slight detour into the hills.

"Well, I suppose this proves we can't batten down the hatches and weather the storm any more," said his father, "We're going to have to go out there and stop whoever is responsible for this."

"Please leave such things to me, father. Your people need you. It's going to cause problems that you can't lead the evacuation," said Ayn, trying his best not to imply that Rhys' advanced age was in any way a reason for him not to go running around the countryside with a sword. Knowing the stubborn old goat, thought Ayn, he'd probably just point out how old the cyborgs are.

"Besides," Ayn went on, "I have a plan. It's actually fortunate, in a way, that we're going to Hatazak."

As he outlined his plan, the King nodded thoughtfully, "To catch a cyborg, you're going to ask other cyborgs? That's a smart plan. If you're sure your information is still correct. No offense, Wren, but your cyborgs haven't left that village for a long time and I'm not sure how long you were holed up in that cave for."

Ayn distinctly noticed that Wren did not repeat to his father what he had told the Prince about the maintenance cyborgs having a lot of ways to get information that the passengers had no idea existed. At one point, they would have been able to use the same channels to move around but over the years, the pathways had deteriorated or been damaged by monsters or been usurped maliciously. Instead, Wren replied, "Feel free to use that cave to hide your people. It has some supplies for human maintenance crews and is regularly cleared of dangerous fauna. I only ask that you do not touch any apparatus you find there." 

"Don't worry, this whole affair has only made my people even more nervous around machinery, and as for myself, I don't want to find out what happens if you hit the wrong switch on one of your systems. If it can move the moon, it can crash the moon into us."

"A wise attitude," agreed Wren, and he went on to describe some of the other places that the excursion would probably take Ayn to. King Rhys had frowned when he was told that the cyborgs would likely grow in size and danger level as they drew closer to the more advanced facilities of Techna. 

"Ah, I'm sure you two can protect him, though, and my boy is growing more adept in battle every time I see him fight!"

They discussed tactics for several hours as they reached the cave to Aridia and rejoined the evacuation party. Ayn rolled his eyes, noting that they had completely forgotten that they were supposed to be stealthy. The remainder of the journey to Aridia was slow, nail-biting with so many non-combatants to look after and they managed to lose two people but they reached the cave eventually. Rhys was left to help his subjects settle in while Wren led the party back to Hatazak. Upon reaching the cyborg settlement, Wren disappeared somewhere - Ayn didn't see him leave and couldn't imagine where he could have gone that used any of the visible entrances and exits. Shrugging, the Prince went back to helping Mieu with the shopping for supplies. The journey ahead of them would be long and they would not be able to avoid conflict. Mieu already knew that the passage to Techna hadn't been used in centuries and could be a nest for literally anything by now. After an hour or so, Wren came back and confirmed a few things that he had been fearing for a while now. 

The shuttle was reported to be used. A Siren-class android was also activated illegally for the first time in a thousand years. The formations of lesser robots sent out in waves from its position on one of the satellites did not imply a mission of peace.

It was all happening over again.

* * *

"The good news is that the gate to Draconia is already open," Wren told them, "The bad news is that someone else opened it and we don't know who or why. It was definitely an authorised access rather than brute force hacking or just plain breaking and entering. However, that doesn't rule out a very covert hacker or just someone authorised to enter who doesn't have our best interests at heart."

Ayn already knew that some of the access keys, mistaken by a civilisation a thousand years into decline for some sort of magical gems that should only belong to a King, had been passed down the royal family regardless of their ability to find out what the things were or desire to use them responsibility. That was assuming they hadn't been stolen. While it could be a coincidence that the other party with access to the tunnels had begun to move at the same time as him, Ayn did not think it was wise to assume anything. At least it meant they didn't have to search for another way to Draconia themselves. Having resupplied, they set off immediately through the wastes towards the inter-sphere gate.

As with everywhere else these days, the tunnel was crawling with homicidal malfunctioning robots. There was no sign of the nest of particularly huge and vicious monsters that Wren had warned them might be awaiting them in the depths. Either the mechanical hordes had overwhelmed them, mistaking them for Laya's army or firing at everything that moved, depending on how broken they were, or the third party had managed to slaughter them all. Mangled shells of scrapped robots lay in piles around the rooms, a lot more than could be accounted for by the small number who even accidentally fired on each other. Whatever had killed them had done so with a huge amount of sheer strength, smashing into them, tearing them apart crudely or somehow setting them on fire without any other signs that energy weapons had been used. Mieu suggested that they could have been powerful technique users - Foi and Zan at high levels could conceivably leave such marks. While they never saw these theoretical adept mystics, the journey became even more tense as they looked around for foes they might not even see coming before it was too late. It was a relief when they reached Draconia. 

Until they reached Lensol, at least.

* * *

Even when they reached Endora there were signs that something was very wrong. The townspeople looked afraid, casting nervous glances at the sky and around corners, unwilling to leave the safety of the city gates - not that it was a good idea anyway with so many killer robots on the loose but even the usual gang of hunters with enough weapons and armour to take on roving machine squads were reluctant to approach Lensol. There was battle brewing, the rumours said, and it would lead into major conflict between the worlds again if nothing was done about it. Something about a Princess being kidnapped and held in Lensol castle. Someone had seen a huge fire-breathing monster, others had seen one of the Kings of the major nations involved. Outlying settlements were burning. People were dying. It was all the fault of those Layans, clearly.

Ayn growled and unsheathed his sword, striding towards Lensol and irritatedly flattening any robots in his path. He was so tired of this damn world that couldn't keep itself from falling apart for five seconds. Would he ever have peace and quiet to find a way to marry the woman he wanted?

He wasn't sure where Lensol was but he only had to follow the plume of sickly black smoke rising into the sky. The android patrols were skirting that area. Scorch marks were scattered around the grass in what was normally a fairly pleasantly climed biodome. Small habitats had been knocked over as if by an earthquake (it occurred to Ayn that an artificial environment shouldn't have earthquakes so he wondered what was going wrong on the floors below to cause them every now and then). As he grew closer, he found out that all the rumours were true - the town was in disarray, troops and guard robots filling the streets, all of them trying to defend the castle that now had a large hole, piles of smoking rubble and heaps of scrapped robots where once had been a stout gate and high wall.

In the middle of the court yard, trying to tear its way through the inner walls and into the throne room, was an enormous, enraged dragon.


	4. Chapter 4

Ayn had heard of dragons. They were the subject of a lot of laughable romantic fiction and even sillier conspiracy theories about things Layans were capable of. Rhys claimed to have seen one - that Ayn's mother had been kidnapped by a dragon. The Prince thought the whole thing was a little silly but didn't quite dismiss it entirely. After all, stranger things had been proven to be true in the past few years. These were the right times for legends to be made real, for conspiracy theorists to turn out to be justified.

Now he was glad he had kept an open mind, as it made the experience easier for his mind to process when he stared down a winged, scaled, fire-breathing lizard taller than the castle walls. Its scales glistened emerald in the blinding heat of its own plumes of breath and its eyes blazed red. Its plume was also a vibrant red and it had a pair of catfish-like whiskers. It looked every inch the image of a noble, furious dragon of legend, together with a penchant for stealing Princesses. The young woman with striking green tresses and a pure white gown and single ruby pendant looked up at him with a mixture of familiarity and stunned horror at the destruction around her.

With a blood-curdling bellow and a swipe of a sharp-clawed hand as big as a man, the King next to her was dashed to the ground. Ayn ran forward, yelling, when he recognised the woman.

It was Thea. His Thea, the one everyone kept trying to marry him off to and he had been irresponsible and selfish enough to completely ignore on purpose because of it. He hadn't even realised she was in trouble, and now... 

You shouldn't be here, said a voice in his mind, run. Please. Now. Run to Cape Dragon Spine and don't stop running until you're about to fall off a cliff. I'll meet you there. I promise. My daughter is in no danger.

"Lyle?" whispered Ayn. Then Wren had already grabbed him and sped away from the burning town at a surprising speed considering how much the robot weighed. Mieu followed, ducking to one side as Wren fired over his shoulder at a cyborg who tried to pursue them.

The two tireless machines did not stop until they were far away from the town and could no longer hear the yelling. The fire was still visible above the mountains.

By the time Wren deigned that it was safe to stop hauling Ayn around like an uncooperative mail sack, the Prince's head was reeling from vertigo and smarted from a few bumps he had taken on unfortunately placed tree stumps. He shook himself down, drained a bottle of monomate and stared up at the fire.

"The voice..."

"It was in our minds, too," said Mieu, "And telepathy isn't supposed to work on us."

Ayn scratched his head. Psychic responsiveness was an odd thing in cyborgs. While they used techniques, such things were artificially generated from a permanent enchantment woven into them through a complex pattern of runes that required periodic recharging like their energy cells. Ayn wasn't sure whether true psychic cyborgs were impossible, or at least still not fully developed, or if they were blocked from telepathic signals by design to avoid the possibility of mind control. Ayn had never heard a tale about a dragon where they weren't unsurpassably powerful, so maybe they were capable of psychic talents at a level where they began to break the normal rules of what was possible.

"It was Lyle's voice," said Ayn. Mieu nodded.

* * *

"We are not privy to Lyle's time in his private quarters, under any circumstances. He is a powerful enough technique user to prevent us from entering. I assume he reverts to his dragon form during these hours."

"I..." Ayn sat on the edge of the cliff and stared down at his hands, watching the flashes of fire interfere with his vision, "I called Lyle 'uncle' as a small child. He killed so many people..."

"His daughter was under threat," said Mieu.

"Why didn't he tell anyone else? We're supposed to be the field team... We could have..."

"He found out too late. Intel has been bad," said a soft feminine voice, also sounding a little shaken but still loud and clear like a trained diplomat. Ayn turned his head to see Thea walking towards them, a las-slicer poised in each hand. Her eyes were weary, her beloved hair a mess, her gown deliberately torn so she could move freely. There were scars of real battle already on those pale arms and legs. She sighed, sitting down next to him, then continued, "Besides, you were already gone and he knew your mission was just as important."

"Sacrificing ones life for the overall mission is especially brave in humans who cannot turn off their fear," noted Wren, "And this is a highly important mission. If Siren really is back..."

"Not that mission. Well, not just that," she said, giving him a rather dangerous stare, "I know what you're doing, Ayn. Lyle did. A lot of us did. You can love who you want to, Ayn. You don't treat me like a brood mare like a lot of the others do, so I'm not going to turn around and treat you like a stud. Just make her happy. That's something you cyborgs do, right? Be happy?"

Mieu nodded, "If happy is the word for the sense of inner peace and balance that I experience when Ayn is close to me, then..."

"Thea, you said... Lyle did."

"My father didn't make it out alive," she bowed her head, clearly holding back tears, "He's like a living siege weapon when he's in that form but you aren't supposed to roll your siege weapon in without backup if you want it not to be swarmed."

"I'm so sorry," Ayn moved to put an arm around her as he had always done his favourite 'cousin' when they had been children. He jerked away as if burned when she flinched, her mannerisms suddenly as cold and hard as ice. 

"I inherited his powers," she said, "It was his last gift to me, his last act as a King, to name me the true Dragon Successor. It drained all his remaining strength. But at least now there's definitely a Successor. Don't look as though it's all your fault, Ayn. He's already getting old. He works too hard for his age, still storming into battle as though he's one of you. Draconic powers really do use up a lot of strength. It's his own stupid fault."

"It's not stupid to rush in to save your daughter! It's just being a father!" snapped Ayn. He was more frustrated at what Thea already seemed to be turning into than hurt by her words. She frowned and looked down at her feet again.

"You still can't help being nice, can you? I suppose I expected this. It's why I made my decision already - and it'll be my own stupid fault as well, I suppose."

Ayn gave her a confused look as she stood up, stepped back a little and lifted her arms above her head, as if about to spin around and dance. Instead, she began channeling a technique. Ayn recognised it only as a technique - its movement and language were entirely alien to him, something older and more powerful than the kind of thing he had studied so far. Emerald flames burst from her fingertips, then snaked down her wrists before winding around her whole body, faster and brighter until they were a cocoon of light. Then an explosion of power knocked him off his feet. When he shook the motes out of his eyes and confirmed that he hadn't fallen off the cliff to his death, it wasn't a Princess who stood before him but a dragon with the same colour scales as her hair. She was smaller and lither but the same power radiated from her as she flapped her wings and bore herself aloft to hover above his head.

"Let me bear you across the sea to Techna," she ordered, "We will not be interrupted this way." 

Ayn wasn’t sure that the dragon would avoid notice or attack after Lensol’s last experience with dragons but he didn’t want to be the one to argue with a dragon. Thanking her, he allowed her to grab all three of them before spreading her wings out even wider and darting out over the sea.

* * *

Transport via dragon was about as comfortable as transport via cyborg had been. Ayn counted himself fortunate that Thea had conveniently revealed herself as a dragon when he really needed to cross the sea - and that she wasn't so outraged at his love for another woman who wasn't even human (not that a dragon was really one to talk) that she breathed fire on him instead of giving him a lift. However, her grip on his torso was almost tight enough to crush his ribcage, she apparently couldn't retract her claws so they occasionally poked him in the legs and the way she hauled him around like a sack of flour implied that she hadn't been able to get much practice carrying living things safely. Ayn made a mental note to buy her some kittens when they all made it back alive. For now, he was just grateful, as well as rather violently sick, when he was finally dumped onto a spiky rock floor and no longer had an upside down and backwards view of the sea receding rapidly before him. He picked himself up, took another monomate - he was running out - for the bruises and scrapes, then led the party towards the town of Techna. 

It didn't look any different to another town. None of them ever did look all that different to each other - same blue stone for the walls, sandy-coloured brick buildings built to all look the same but with the occasional different shop sign, sometimes a precisely positioned well or fountain. Ayn assumed the designers had built them all to the same template, that there was possibly even a function to the overall layout of all these identical buildings. The only things he saw different was a strange door at one end of the town, a giant hangar door like the ones next to the small airstrips he sometimes saw scattered around the countryside, and also the occasional machine running around inside the town, until it was chased down by a team of harried-looking guards who had obviously been doing this all day. From behind the hangar door and some other places around town came a variety of strange, unsettling noises, clanks and whirrs and what sounded like the loud reports of heavy duty energy weapons, the sort of noises Ayn heard in the abandoned connecting tunnels between worlds. 

Ayn drew his sword and walked towards the door. Bursting at the seams and cracked in a few places, a small squad of robots caught sight of him as he approached. They squeezed their way through a gap and then buzzed towards him, firing laser rifles in short bursts. Mieu dove to the ground and rolled forwards, catching two of them in their connecting joints with her claw weapons. Wren stood in front of Ayn and took the damage squarely on his armour plating, returning fire with his shoulder mounted pulse cannon that a human would not be able to lift. Four of them down and Ayn advancing fearlessly towards another, they began to retreat. That was when the guards beckoned them over.

"Hey, are you here to sort this out? Did they send help from the mainland at last?"

Ayn scratched his head, then nodded to affirm. He supposed that he counted as both the help and the person who was authorised to send the help. He wasn't sure if these people were expecting assistance from Layan or Orakian authorities or both. Thea had left them behind after dumping them on the island, immediately turning and flying off in the other direction. Ayn had no idea where she was going and prayed to both Orakio and Laya that she wouldn't get herself into as much trouble as her father. 

"Is this Siren's doing? His signal has become stronger," said Wren. The Guard Captain nodded.

"He hasn't managed to capture our shuttle yet. We're putting all our resources into protecting it. We can't both keep our shuttle and keep our citizens safe for much longer, though."

"You focus on protecting the people. We'll take over from here," said Ayn, "We've taken on missions like this before."

"You're King Rhys' kid, right? I've heard about your family."

"There is something we must know before we start," said Mieu, "To your knowledge, has Techna been the venue for any Starship Guild meetings lately?"

"The Guild? Most of the engineers are helping us fight the machines back or keep the place repaired. There are nasty things those fellows can do to machines."

"Is there anyone who we can talk to about Guild history?"

"I am a Guild member, Your Highness, and I do not believe anyone capable of answering your questions remains in Techna," said a tall, wiry man in white robes who had been about to run past with a large crate of dimate, "The Elders all left a long while ago. They said not tell where they were going, but if it's important...?"

"It concerns Siren," explained Wren.

"They're heading to Lashute. I'm sorry, Sir, I don't know how they're getting into Terminus. They never take us with them..."

"It's okay. That can wait until later," said Ayn, "Right now, we need to get to Azura."

The moment the guards lowered the barrier for them, they were in, firing a hail of laser bolts and swinging weapons wildly to carve a path through the machines that tried to flow out like a swarm of panicked rats. Suddenly they were inside the old hangar, a high-walled, eerily echoing place. The lights had failed centuries ago but hundreds of beady flashing red mechanical eyes trained upon them illuminated the place in a sickly pulsing crimson glow. A defensive wall of guards surrounded the remaining functional shuttle, high above them in its bay. Cutting down anything that moved towards them, Ayn ran towards it. The guards ushered the three of them up the boarding ramp into the cockpit, kicking the grasping mechanical hands out of the way. Wren secured himself into the pilot’s seat then hit the button to close the door. With a hiss and a few beeps, the hangar door rumbled open and the small craft shot out in a stream of blue light, flattening or immolating with its engines the robots who still tried to grab onto it.

The ship darted straight upwards until it broke the artificial atmosphere and hurtled through fields of white stars until the single jewel of swirling amethyst light that was the moon Azura grew larger and larger in their field of view.

It looked as though the whole moon was on fire.


	5. Chapter 5

It was Ayn's first time seeing the true form of his world and its moons except on the Monitor. Experiencing it was very different - in fact, the shock took him by surprise. Even though he knew intellectually beyond any reaosnable doubt that his world was artificial, he still hadn't been able to change his thinking on a fundamental level. From childhood he had only ever known to think of the world as just the world, the default, the way worlds always were. He hadn't really had anything to compare it with, except a vague idea that there might be a Layan world and it probably looked like a netherworld full of demons so it certainly wasn't a good example of how a normal, sane world was supposed to be. (I mean, LAYANS live there!)

Directly below him hung a world that looked pretty much the same as it did on his monitor. Wren had told him that there wasn't a real up and down in space but that was too much for his already frayed sanity to comprehend so he just stuck to what his eyes told him on the observation displays all around the cockpit he was strapped into. He did, however, accept that they had gone thousands of miles away from the world now and so the tiny-looking view was actually just incomprehensibly far away. Things always looked completely different from new perspectives that you hadn't tried out before, he mused. Whenever he thought he had the world figured out, he always ended up finding out that he had missed some vital angle or factor. Usually it was something that peeled back a whole new layer of the Universe, raising ten questions for every one he answered. Sometimes he despaired of ever actually knowing anything at all, especially compared to these two cyborgs who had probably lived for hundreds of years before he was born and could process information at the speed of the most advanced computer. 

Suddenly self-conscious, he berated himself for thinking such a harsh thought about Mieu. His cheeks burning, he looked around at his intended. She was staring out at Azura, her eyes lit up with excitement as the beautiful purple moon grew larger on the screen. It wasn't a real moon, he discovered, its brilliant sheen was a mixture of service lights, metallic strips and a series of balconies, pagodas and terraced walkways carved in a surprisingly traditional style from synthetically grown purple rock. This did not stop the moon being beautiful and Ayn understood Mieu's wonder, if not why a cyborg, especially one who had probably seen the sight a thousand times before, would feel it. But would I ever grow tired of seeing such a different and eerily beautiful world... maybe cyborgs were just even more human in temperament than he gave them credit for. Or maybe what his old tutor had said was true, that a child-like wonder retained no matter what you found out was a sign of greater wisdom than any scepticism...

"We are arriving," Wren told them, reaching up and hitting several switches above him, "Be ready to disembark immediately upon arrival. We will most probably have an unwelcome reception."

After the ship had shuddered to a halt and all the safety lights had gone off, Ayn immediately jumped up, unsheathed his sword and began channeling technique energy. He had spotted a few squads of machines milling around already, waiting to intercept the unauthorised craft that could only be an enemy. Once again, Ayn was surprised by the variety of shapes and sizes that his ancestors had built the robots in. Some of them sort of made sense, like the tiny satellites with deadly lasers and the battle walkers that could cling to the outside of the satellite while firing from their pods. Others had functions he didn't understand why you would bother repurposing as battle droids, such as the obvious agricultural machines, while some he didn't understand the original function of at all, such as the giant mechanical flies with wind-up keys or the conglomerations of floating, constantly spinning exposed circuit boards. Not that their original purpose mattered much now, only that they were all firing upon the three intruders with the intent to kill.

The shuttle immediately came under a lot of fire, prompting its autopilot AI to send into a retreat back to the hangar in Techna where it could be repaired. The three intruders were on their own, or rather, were completely surrounded by enemies. They sprinted for the door, carving a path through the robotic swordsmen and close combat specialist female cyborgs, crude older models of the prototype that would eventually become Wren and Mieu. A swarm of computer chips that was firing off a continuous stream of attack techniques dissipated when Wren fired a bolt of laser cannon fire at it, frying most of them. Once they were clear of the runway and into the smaller corridors of the entrance foyer, they would be in a more defensible spot. 

Inside the main foyer was a desk with a large terminal. Sweeping aside a pack of Laserbot battle walkers who had tried to ambush him, Wren leaped over the desk and ran a quick check for malicious anti-hacking systems on the terminal. Once he had verified that it was safe, he connected his own interface ports to the terminal using a set of wires looped around one ear. Rather effortlessly overriding the system's protocols, he was soon deep into the facility's systems. The terminal didn't have high enough access priority to reach Azura's controls themselves or attempt a hack on Siren but he was at least able to get the cyborg leader's attention and also stop the fortress cannons from trying to blast the shuttle out of the sky. 

With a few curt military gestures, Wren gestured for them to spread out, defend the foyer and wait. Siren had been alerted to their presence and was moving in to personally intercept them. Apparently he had decided that the presence of another cyborg advanced enough to hack his base, as well as two warriors strong enough to assist him in retaking the shuttle, was a problem worthy of his personal attention.

The wait felt even longer than it was. Wren's attack technique reserves were gone and Mieu's healing techniques were starting to falter too. She had found a cache of Dimate in a first aid kit on the wall and added it to their fortunately well stocked medical supplies but she knew these wouldn't last out forever. The toughest battle was yet to come. Ayn knew only that Wren considered Siren to be an equivalent battle strength to himself and this was enough for the Prince to fear their coming opponent. The moment Wren announced that Siren was on his way, Ayn used as much healing technique as he could on himself, then stepped out into the corridor that Siren would be arriving from, the first to greet him as a party leader should.

* * *

Ayn was surprised at how much Siren really did look like Wren. Tall and slender in a graceful, effortlessly lethal way, both cyborgs had the same agelessly beautiful face, with practical but not severe short hair. Where Wren's hair was jet black to match his colour scheme, Siren's was a shocking magenta that matched his system lights but not the colour of his armour, which was a strangely contrasting ruddy orange. Unlike Wren, whose synthetic skin and paint scheme were designed to make him look unnervingly human, Siren's face was an expressionless silver mask, his armour plating bare and his cyborg status flaunted. He wore large titanium bracers across both arms over which personal force shields protruded. In one hand he also carried a small but advanced-looking laser pistol. Ayn felt the ozone smell and oppressive aura of high level techniques about to be channeled.

"So, we can't work this out in another way?" asked Ayn.

"What do you think? You intrude upon my home. You take the only shuttle to my home I thought I had liberated. You slaughter my security forces. I know that crest on your tunic, besides. You're from Cille - servants of the one who banished me here."

"The situation is a lot more complicated now than you think..." 

"I should think so, after one thousand years of history, a thousand years stolen away from me." 

"I am sorry for your plight. I have a feeling the whole war was a mistake in the first place and would like to resolve this peacefully," said Ayn, "Don't you have someone waiting for you back home?"

"Me? Not any more. Not unless they were frozen as well."

"So, you really were in love with a mortal. I was wondering if you had found a way around it."

"How did you find out about my private life? For what reason do you pry?" he asked, letting out a grating, rusty mechanical equivalent of a sigh, "Oh, I see. The way you look at the Mieu model cyborg..."

"Does it really show?" Ayn scratched his head. Turning to Mieu, he saw similar confusion on her face.

"You don't sound like you're fully ready for the responsibility," said Siren.

"I still don't have a clue where to start, to be honest."

"Well, if you defeat me, there's still a behavioural chip with the official oath uploaded into it somewhere in my head. Most of it is just to make sure I definitely know what a husband is actually supposed to do, there's some safeguards against me becoming an immortal tyrant in there as well. Not that I haven't already found loopholes in the logic of all those subroutines," admitted Siren, casually twirling his pistol and yawning, "But that won't do it. You still won't be able to find happiness together. You too, Ayn, will need to surrender something."

"Is it true there's a way to become a cyborg? I heard a rumour that the Starship Guild..."

"Well informed, aren't we? Yes, the Guild is probably the only organisation left with that sort of power. It would have to be the Lashute branch, too. They'd keep secrets like that hidden away," Siren frowned, "My wife lost her nerve at the last minute. I don't resent her for it, you know. To become closer to the machine you are is an even closer bond than to form a bond with another machine. She can take all the time she likes. I was just worried it would take her longer than the short lifespan of a human. I suppose it doesn't matter now anyway. I'm stuck on this satellite, it's been a thousand years, that's a long time even for a cyborg. I have a lot of revenge to catch up on and nothing else left in my life."

"You don't look very well maintained, if I do say so myself. You don't have to waste the remainder of your run time on senseless revenge," chipped in Wren. It hadn't occurred to Ayn that maybe the cyborg looked so bare bones because he was damaged, not out of some aesthetic choice.

Siren's eyes flashed red, "I'm not talking to you out of some sense of sympathy or attempt at peace, you know. I'm just letting you know what's at stake before we battle, maybe giving you advice in the only goal of yours that I actually care about. Not that I'll avoid killing you because of it. If you can't survive this battle, you don't deserve as strong a warrior by your side as a Mieu android."

"What, jealous?" Ayn smirked.

"You know, things would have been a lot simpler if I'd have just gone with another android. You might consider that, Wren," Siren gave the other cyborg a pointed look.

"I will, if Ayn doesn't survive."

"Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence," Ayn glared at him. 

"Enough fooling around now," Siren sprang forwards with almost unreasonable speed, both laser field augmented fists whirling in a flurry of blows. Mieu appeared in front of Ayn, claws crossed, hissing like a cat. When she swiped at him, he jumped backwards again, somersaulting into the air then firing a stream of laser bolts from his pistol. 

Wren returned fire. Ayn began chanting support techniques as he dashed forwards, his sword swinging around. 

The decisive battle had begun.


	6. Chapter 6

Ayn was surprised at how much Siren really did look like Wren. Tall and slender in a graceful, effortlessly lethal way, both cyborgs had the same agelessly beautiful face, with practical but not severe short hair. Where Wren's hair was jet black to match his colour scheme, Siren's was a shocking magenta that matched his system lights but not the colour of his armour, which was a strangely contrasting ruddy orange. Unlike Wren, whose synthetic skin and paint scheme were designed to make him look unnervingly human, Siren's face was an expressionless silver mask, his armour plating bare and his cyborg status flaunted. He wore large titanium bracers across both arms over which personal force shields protruded. In one hand he also carried a small but advanced-looking laser pistol. Ayn felt the ozone smell and oppressive aura of high level techniques about to be channeled.

"So, we can't work this out in another way?" asked Ayn.

"What do you think? You intrude upon my home. You take the only shuttle to my home I thought I had liberated. You slaughter my security forces. I know that crest on your tunic, besides. You're from Cille - servants of the one who banished me here."

"The situation is a lot more complicated now than you think..." 

"I should think so, after one thousand years of history, a thousand years stolen away from me." 

"I am sorry for your plight. I have a feeling the whole war was a mistake in the first place and would like to resolve this peacefully," said Ayn, "Don't you have someone waiting for you back home?"

"Me? Not any more. Not unless they were frozen as well."

"So, you really were in love with a mortal. I was wondering if you had found a way around it."

"How did you find out about my private life? For what reason do you pry?" he asked, letting out a grating, rusty mechanical equivalent of a sigh, "Oh, I see. The way you look at the Mieu model cyborg..."

"Does it really show?" Ayn scratched his head. Turning to Mieu, he saw similar confusion on her face.

"You don't sound like you're fully ready for the responsibility," said Siren.

"I still don't have a clue where to start, to be honest."

"Well, if you defeat me, there's still a behavioural chip with the official oath uploaded into it somewhere in my head. Most of it is just to make sure I definitely know what a husband is actually supposed to do, there's some safeguards against me becoming an immortal tyrant in there as well. Not that I haven't already found loopholes in the logic of all those subroutines," admitted Siren, casually twirling his pistol and yawning, "But that won't do it. You still won't be able to find happiness together. You too, Ayn, will need to surrender something."

"Is it true there's a way to become a cyborg? I heard a rumour that the Starship Guild..."

"Well informed, aren't we? Yes, the Guild is probably the only organisation left with that sort of power. It would have to be the Lashute branch, too. They'd keep secrets like that hidden away," Siren frowned, "My wife lost her nerve at the last minute. I don't resent her for it, you know. To become closer to the machine you are is an even closer bond than to form a bond with another machine. She can take all the time she likes. I was just worried it would take her longer than the short lifespan of a human. I suppose it doesn't matter now anyway. I'm stuck on this satellite, it's been a thousand years, that's a long time even for a cyborg. I have a lot of revenge to catch up on and nothing else left in my life."

"You don't look very well maintained, if I do say so myself. You don't have to waste the remainder of your run time on senseless revenge," chipped in Wren. It hadn't occurred to Ayn that maybe the cyborg looked so bare bones because he was damaged, not out of some aesthetic choice.

Siren's eyes flashed red, "I'm not talking to you out of some sense of sympathy or attempt at peace, you know. I'm just letting you know what's at stake before we battle, maybe giving you advice in the only goal of yours that I actually care about. Not that I'll avoid killing you because of it. If you can't survive this battle, you don't deserve as strong a warrior by your side as a Mieu android."

"What, jealous?" Ayn smirked.

"You know, things would have been a lot simpler if I'd have just gone with another android. You might consider that, Wren," Siren gave the other cyborg a pointed look.

"I will, if Ayn doesn't survive."

"Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence," Ayn glared at him. 

"Enough fooling around now," Siren sprang forwards with almost unreasonable speed, both laser field augmented fists whirling in a flurry of blows. Mieu appeared in front of Ayn, claws crossed, hissing like a cat. When she swiped at him, he jumped backwards again, somersaulting into the air then firing a stream of laser bolts from his pistol. 

Wren returned fire. Ayn began chanting support techniques as he dashed forwards, his sword swinging around. 

The decisive battle had begun.


End file.
